OK, Let me begin by saying I used to worry like an old lady over every little thing and in the end it just doesn't help. When I first started breeding snakes I actually did the typical "help, my snake is eggbound!" post. Plenty of others we have seen on here anually.
The snake that laid these eggs is by far one the most important out of clutches from 2008. She laid at least 10 good eggs. I saw a few lumps WAY inside her not far past her midsection. I did not attempt to move them closer to her vent, matter of fact I didn't even leave the nest box in. A day or two later it looked like a second ovulation. Regardless of seeing or thinking I saw something like that I put them male back in after I fed her. He chased her around but I did not see them lock up, I had other things to do. Later one an infertile egg popped out with this extra thingy on, sleeved halfway over it like a.......well I don't wanna use the analogy that comes to mind so we'll say a glove over a hand. Here's a pic though by the time I got to the camera hours later it had dried up.
It seems as if there was another ova/ovum that was in the process of being shelled that simply did not complete the mission. Why? I don't know or care....I would just say things like this happen from time to time.
Two days later, two more popped out.
I had two females last year that may have had thier clutches spoil inside the females from overfeeding, just a guess....feeding tons of rodents here has always worked just fine. Two of those snakes were fed less this season and laid good clutches but the size was almost half of the previous seasons slugs. The snake that dropped the weird eggs was also not fed quite as much as my usual regiment. Maybe in this case the snake did NOT receive enough food?
Someone I have a lot of respect for once reminded me that producing snakes can be easy as pie but sometimes it is the opposite and things will just not work out. You just never know. This particular project took 4 years to get off the ground. They are the only two snakes with these particular genetics that I know of in existance. The old/beginner me would have panicked...but I am glad I didn't. My guess is lots of people unintentionally torment their snakes in this condition by contantly fooling with them. I think people should also consider simply covering the cage and leaving the snake alone checking on them every 12 hours before panic sets in. It seems most people have no intention of taking a snake to the vet anyway.... they try all these DIY tricks they read about. Again, this may do more harm than good, and of course sometimes it works too. I guess what I am saying is it doesn't hurt to give the snake a chance to finish what it started alone on its own.
yup
Tom Stevens
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TomsSnakes.com
